On Thu, 7 Sep 2006 11:15:25 -0700, David Cates <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> The instrument Hantai used is the same as what he used on his Mirare 
> recording of Scarlatti (vol 1); it's made by Jurgen Ammer after an
> anonymous 1720 ish thuringian original ( a single, 2x8). The original
> is in the Bachaus museum. I think Pierre's is a double version, in
> bird quill which always helps; Jurgen makes both a single and a
> double version. I met Jurgen last summer and played one of them for
> about half a day. It sounds very italian, but the construction isn't
> italian style at all. It's got a "hollow wrestplank" like some
> italians, and the angle of the jackrail is fairly acute son the
> plucking points are pretty deep, and especially so in the bass giving
> it a virginal-like quality. It's a surprisingly versatile instrument,
> but while it's great for WTC I and pretty much anything earlier, and
> also scarlatti, it doesn't sound right for later things, like the
> partitas, WTC II, or the Goldbergs. I liiked it very much.
> 
This instrument, which belongs to Juergen Ammer, was also used by Ewald
Demeyere for his excellent Accent CD, J S Bach The Young Virtuoso (ACC
24170). It has lovely things on it like the Fantasia and Fugue in A
minor (BWV 904), the Toccata in Eminor (BWV 894) and the Capriccio on
the absence of the favourite brother (BWV 992). Also Ewald's
realizations of the Fantasia and Fughettas in B flat major (BWV 907) and
D major (BWV 917), which are due to appear finally in the NBA next year
I believe.

Here is the note from the CD on the instrument, which I agree with
David sounds very well indeed:

The harpsichord for this recording was made by Juergen Ammer in 1995,
after an anonymous harpsichord of 1715 in the German style from
Thuringia. The original belongs to the Bachhaus collection in Eisenach
(Cat.nr. 77). The sound and construction characteristics of the
original single-manual harpsichord look back to the seventeenth century
and even earlier (for example the instrument has a transposing
keyboard). When the instrument was built, it was actually already
obsolete. The compass is four octaves, from C to c'''. The most
peculiar feature of this harpsichord is the use of two soundboards,
over which the strings run for almost their entire length. The first
soundboard extends from the wrestpins to the jackrail, and the second
conventional soundboard extends from the jackrail to the edge of the
harpsichord. This explains the unusual volume and range of the sound,
despite the modest size of the instrument. The quality of the sound is
also very peculiar. Because the extra soundboard is situated above the
keyboard, the plucking-point is moved towards the middle of the
strings, so that the sound which emerges strongly resembles that of a
virginal or a lute. We know that the young Bach had a similar
instrument.

There is a good picture of the instrument, which is the 2 manual
version, with the CD.

Chris Cartwright